While The Rookie Season 7 just premiered on the 2025 TV schedule after being in production during the fall schedule, co-star Jenna Dewan was absent from the first two episodes. It’s no surprise, though, as the actress gave birth over the summer just before filming commenced for the latest season. Last May, creator and showrunner Alexi Hawley revealed that Dewan would not be appearing in the season's earliest installments, and now that fans have really started questioning her absence, both the actress and series boss have addressed her impending return.
The Season 6 finale of The Rookie ended with a prison escape involving longtime Rookie criminal Oscar Hutchinson (Matthew Glave) and Bailey’s sociopathic ex-husband, Jason Wyler (Steve Kazee). That storyline will continue with Jason in Episode 3, airing January 21, and Dewan took to social media to tease Bailey's next appearance, though not before Hawley had already confirmed to Screen Rant when the character would reappearance after her National Guard stint. In his words:
Yeah. I mean, Jenna had a baby, so we see her at the end of Episode 3, basically.
Exactly how Bailey will make her return is still unknown, but Hawley seemed to make it clear the only reason we haven't seen her is because of the actress' real-life changes, and that no one should expect her to be out for the long haul.
Jenna Dewan seems to be as excited as ever, as well. The Step Up actress shared on her Instagram Story (via TV Insider) a sweet photo of her and baby Rhiannon, her second child with fiancé Kazee, along with this captioned reasoning:
Someone was being born!
The series has already been touching on the prison escape, with Nathan Fillion’s John Nolan being as vigilant as ever with the knowledge that his wife would be in danger were she at home. Since tthe third ep will show more of the fallout, there is no telling what will go down, especially with Bailey coming back to town. Both of them are surely in danger, and just from the looks of the promo seen below, it’s going to be an episode fans won’t want to miss.
Since the characters have not only Jason to worry about but Oscar, who has more than a few times proved that he is a formidable adversary for the LAPD, it should be interesting to see how this all goes down. It’s likely the storyline won’t be solved right away, especially since the series has gone back to old habits, meaning there will be more serialized elements with just one or two big storylines throughout the season. The prison escape can certainly last a while, or at the very least, perhaps just half the season.
Either way, the new episode and remainder of the season will not want to be missed. Plus, there are other storylines to look forward to other than the prison escape, meaning that the possibilities are endless as to what will happen. Season 7 just started, so who knows what could go down. New episodes of The Rookie air on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC, streaming the next day with a Hulu subscription.
